Treatment of acetylene gas.



UNITED STATES PATENT o FIoE.

JOSEPH HID JAMES AND HERBERT wA'rsoNg or PITTSBIL'IRG, PENNSYLVANIA,AssreNoRs TO THE SEARCHLIGHT GAS COMPANY, OF WARREN, OHIO, ACORPORATIONOF OHIO.

TREATMENT OF AcETYLnNE ens.

Patented July 20, 1909.

Application filed March 29, 1909. Serial No. 486,580.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, JOSEPH HIDY-JAMEs aIId HERBERT; WATSON, both ofPittsburg, in the courfty of Allegheny and State of Pennsylvania, haveinvented a new and useful Improvement in the Treatment of Acet ylleneGas, of which the following is a fu clear, and exact description.

Our invention has relation to the treat-- ment of acetylene gas, and itis designed to provide a method for overcoming thedifficulties whichhave heretofore been associated- 'with the compression, transportationand storage of this gas, which, under the high ressure necessary tocommercial use, is.of angerous character. It 'is well known in the artthat the usual method'of handling this as, which consists incompressinit and issolving it in acetone, has faile to eliminate the danger of exlosion, both during/ the time occupied in t e mechanical act. ofcompression into containers and in the 1 containers themselves, wherethe gas-is ke 't under pressure.

In fact, frequent ex 0- sions have resulted from this metho of treatmentwhich have sometimes been attended by the loss of life andgreat dangerto rd erty. We have discovered that these d on ties may be overcome andthe danger of. explosion reduced to a minimum'by mixmg t egas with thevapor of acetaldehyde in or about equal volumes and com ressing themixed gas and vapor into a suita le container in which they can *besafely stored, and transported. While this-method of treatment veryslightly diminishes thfe luminosity of ,the gas, it doe'snotpdo so to anobjectionable extent for ordinary purposes.

Acetaldehyde boils at 21 degrees centigrade, and is therefore veryvolatile, and when acetylene gas is diluted or mixed with theva or of"acetaldehyde, it is not as susceptib e to spontaneous decompositionunder compression. 7 In fact, our experiments and observation tend toshow that an actual chemical reaction takes place between theacetaldehyde' andthe acetylene, whereas pj 'ljre acetylene is anendothermic com ound,

and is consequently unstable and un ergoes ed ,.5that 1f'.th,e-.acetaldehyde vapor is condensed liquid,it has a far greater spontaneousdecomposition into its elements ed. We have also disdissolving power onacetylene than any other heretofore known solvent, acetone, which hashitherto been considered as hav-' in the maximum of efficiency in thisrespect, 0 y having about three-quarters the efficiency of acetaldehydeunder the same conditions of tem eraturevand pressure. liquid acetaldeydemay therefore also be employed for the storage ofs acetylene. Whenused in this manner, we prefer to mix it with an organic com ound ofhigher molecular weight and b.o1 'ng point which com ound contains thecarbon 1 group --=O), such 'as ethyl or methy acetate. In this way, theboiling point can be greatly raised, and the solubility of the mixturehas been proved to have a higher dissolving power'than the mean of thetwo substances when used separately. For the storage of acetylene-incoldrlimates, the percentage of v aoetaldehyde would be increasedrelatively to the ercentage of the other organic compound, w ereas inwarmer'climates, the ercentage of this other organic compound of 'ghermolecular wei ht would be increased sufli'ciently to raise t e boilingjpoint of the mixture above the temperature to which the containerwould'be subjected, in use. In all practical cases, however, thepercentage of the acet'aldehyde will be sufiicient to keep the solventpower to a point greatl above that of the heavierorgamc compoun While,as above stated, we prefer to use ethyl or methyl acetate as the organiccom pound of higher weight, we may use other organic compoundscontaining the carbonyl group and o a highenmolecular weight than theacetaldehyde.

We claim;

1. The method of treating acetylene gas for storage, which consists inmixin together and compressing acetylene gasv wit the vapor ofacetaldehyde, substantially as described.

2. The method of treating acetylene gas for storage, which consists inmixing together substantially equal volumes of the gas and of the vapor,of acetaldehyde and compressing the same into a suitable container,substantially as described. v

' 3. The process of treating acetylene gas efor storage which consistsin dissolving the gas in a mixture of acetaldehyde and an organiccompound of higher molecular weight The . In testimony Whereef, we havehereunto JOSEPH HIDY JAMES. HERBERT WATSON. i

and boiling point than acetaldehyde, and i varying the percentage of thetwo substances I set our hands. t

in the mixture to vary the boiling point thereof ac'cordin to theconditions of term 5 per ature to whic the mixture contained inWitnesses: I the gas is to be subjected, substantially as H. M. CORWIN,

GEO. PARMELEE.

described.

